Ha...! I thought this was a funny story. New John Woo film Red Cliff (赤壁) based on the battle of Red Cliffs, a famous battle in Chinese history was released in two parts in its native east Asia. It broke all box office records in mainland China. The entire film is close to five hours long and is an epic story with myriad characters and plot strands. For the western release however, it's been condensed into one ~140 minute bloc with most of the characters simplified and half the plot removed. Way to go.

What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons. You're born alone and you die alone and this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts. But I never forget. I'm living like there's no tomorrow, because there isn't one.

Oh, we'll get the full thing on DVD and Blu Ray. Don't worry about it. The cut version is probably just for whatever limited theatrical release the movie gets. American audiences aren't going to sit in a theater through two 2 1/2 hours epics based on Chinese history.Theatrically, it'd be stupid to release it in the US as anything but a condensed version.

Anyone else think the movie must have been about a redneck fisherman when they first heard the title? Swear to god, "Red Cliff" could be some white trash asshole's name.

To be honest the title made me think of Clifford the big red dog books.Last time I remember we had a movie that long was Gettysburg...I could not sit through the whole thing in one sitting.Maybe that is why it flopped in theaters since it was a good film but was just too fucking long.

Well they did sit through three three-hour midget epics which were just incredibly overrated, but I get your point.

What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons. You're born alone and you die alone and this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts. But I never forget. I'm living like there's no tomorrow, because there isn't one.

True, but it's all about subject matter. Not a fan of LOTR myself, but the whole swords and sorcery thing works for american audiences.Chinese war history is interesting to a slight few (I'd watch it, definitely), but not enough to expect the same kind of reception as LOTR.Still have no doubt about a full DVD release, though. So it's no problem.

The film is based on fictional novels written about the factual event.

What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons. You're born alone and you die alone and this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts. But I never forget. I'm living like there's no tomorrow, because there isn't one.

I understand why it's been cut and condensed. It seems to me it feels like it becomes more like a short preview of the movie where if you really wanted to see it, you'd buy the film on dvd or something. Movies should be seen in one uninterrupted sitting, though, and still feel like the story is complete, with maybe a few deleted scenes/extras you would be able to see on dvd. It will probably end up confusing American audiences, though. Plus, Americans aren't so familiar with Asian history as they are with European, so audiences will probably feel like they're wandering lost in the dark. Then they'll go in expecting a fantasy epic when it is a historical drama and feel all disappointed when people aren't flying through the air.

Ryudo wrote:To be honest the title made me think of Clifford the big red dog books.

Me too. I already imagined a big red CG dog the size of one of them Transformer robots, drooling gallons of saliva